Many Republicans in Congress, particularly North Carolina's Sen. Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have been vociferous opponents of Aristide and have repeatedly criticized the Clinton administration for not being more aggressive in pursuing the FBI investigation into Bertin's death. Indeed, it is possible that such congressional pressure on the FBI may have been partly responsible for Toussaint's detention and questioning.
Although Toussaint returned to Haiti this past April, new obstacles have arisen to keep him from re-entering the United States. An amendment to the bill authorizing funding of the State Department appears to have been proposed with the specific intent of barring Toussaint's return. The measure, which recently passed Congress, allows INS officials to exclude anyone the Secretary of State believes participated in political killings in Haiti.
"On its face, obviously, who can complain about going after and excluding human rights violators?" Kurzban asks. "That's the thrust of what it is -- unless you really know what the politics are. This is a bill written to exclude ten people from the United States, and to put pressure on them.
"Look at what the standard is," Kurzban continues. "The standard is ridiculous. It says, 'reason to believe that there is a credible allegation.' What does that mean? That means that if the FBI says they think they have information -- even though it wouldn't stand up in a court of law -- that is sufficient to exclude someone from the United States who has been a long-term permanent resident. Where's the evidence? What this does is allow the government to get off the hook by not having to prove anything."
Kurzban says he has no doubt the measure was written specifically with Toussaint and a handful of other people in mind. "I've been practicing immigration law for twenty years and have never seen an immigration bill establishing grounds for exclusion directed toward specific individuals," he adds. "Whatever the objective is here, it is bad law and bad public policy, because, if they want to go after human rights violators, then they ought to do it in such a way to cover human rights violators wherever they are in the world. But to single this out -- it is obvious to me what it is. It's really going after three or four major people, with Dany at the top of the list, and six or seven other people solely because of very short-term, very narrowly focused U.S. foreign policy."
The only way to have the ban lifted, according to the law, is for suspects to cooperate with the FBI. "The exemption is that if you cooperate, we will forgive everything, which is the same offer that has been made to Dany and others before," Kurzban says. "It was made to Dany when they stopped him at the airport. This is designed to try to induce them to testify falsely against Aristide, Preval, or anyone else in the government." Kurzban says he is considering a possible legal challenge to the measure, believing that it is unconstitutionally broad and violates Toussaint's rights to due process and equal protection under the law.
Although the law would also apply to those suspected of killing Aristide's allies, Kurzban says he doubts it would ever be used to that end. "Given the history of the State Department, it is a virtual certainty that they will not apply it toward anyone who was involved in the murders of Aristide's supporters," he says.
Kurzban notes that members of Cedras's family have been allowed to reside in the United States. In addition, the U.S. government granted political asylum to Marc Valme, a major in the Haitian military, even though he was identified as one of the leaders of the coup against Aristide. (He was subsequently indicted by a Miami federal grand jury on drug-trafficking charges.) "How the U.S. decides to grant asylum to Valme is absolutely amazing," Kurzban says with exasperation.
But no more amazing than the decision earlier this month to allow Emmanuel Constant, former leader of the murderous right-wing Haitian paramilitary group known as FRAPH, to live and work freely in the United States. Although he is wanted in Haiti for numerous human rights violations, U.S. officials are considering his application for political asylum. In 1995 Constant told the CBS program 60 Minutes that he had been a paid agent of the CIA from 1991 to 1994. "That just goes to show you what this country's agenda is," Kurzban shrugs. "As long we find you useful we don't care what you do.
